Food Facts for Healthy Eating is a Food Science based Blog for everyday Foodies, Busy Mums and Food Lovers who want to learn more about the Food they eat. I share my weight loss journey on a Low Carb diet and provide lots of recipes and information on how to lose weight, how to keep it off and in the process gain health, happiness and a longer life.

Food Facts for Ketosis

In this section I’ll be talking about ingredients that can be used in Ketosis or a low carbohydrate lifestyle. I’ll be going through each category of foods, introducing some of the Food Science on how they are produced and talking about some of the Australian food products that I use every day as part of my low carbohydrate lifestyle in these categories. These products are those that I use myself and I’ve not been paid for any of these endorsements. These brands may not be available in your area, but keep an eye out for similar products in your local supermarket. Have a quick read of the Food & Beverage Labelling page so that you know how to read a label, and how to determine if a product has the right amount of carbs. There is nothing worse than purchasing a product and realising the carbohydrate level is too high.

I wish I could say that I don’t eat any packaged food, but that would just be untrue. Life is busy and you need to keep it real!! Some days when I’m on the road with work I can’t take a packed lunch with me so I do tend to throw a protein bar in my bag just in case I don’t have time to grab a salad. I do always make sure I take a bottle of water with me as well to stay hydrated.

Packaged foods are available in different degrees and level of processing, from selling vegetables that have simply been cut or chopped (eg, sliced fresh mushrooms) all the way to highly processed meal replacement or sports beverages which can contain a broad range of ingredients. Depending on which type of lifestyle you wish to adopt depends on the level of processing you will accept in your food products. To get your body into Ketosis all you will need to do is adjust your food choices to consume around 20-50g per day of carbohydrate. Have a read of the How Your Body Processes Food page. This will explain how we metabolise carbohydrate-based foods for energy, verses utilising ketones to fuel the brain and the body when the body is in a state of Ketosis.

To get your body into Ketosis you will need to choose foods that are very low in carbohydrate. Your meals will be based mostly on fresh vegetables (non starchy variety), eggs, fresh meats, seafood and poultry and some low carbohydrate dairy products. All these products will be minimally processed, so with little or no additives or additional ingredients. However, in saying this, there are more and more processed food and beverage products that have been created for the low carbohydrate market that are specifically designed to be high in protein and low in carbohydrate. These products can be used occasionally as part of your Ketogenic diet but keep in mind these products will most likely contain high intensity sweeteners, protein isolates, protein concentrates and a multitude of other ingredients making them highly processed. Depending on what you are hoping to achieve with your change in eating, depends on if you will choose to eat highly processed products or stick with fresh, less or un-refined foods.

Another point to mention is that you will also need to consider that if you are looking to tame your sweet tooth and reduce your sugar cravings, it’s probably not a great idea to begin consuming foods with artificial sweeteners as a substitute. This will only continue your body’s craving for sweet flavours.

The categories that we will be discussing over the coming weeks in the Food Facts for Ketosis Section include –

Dairy,

Beverages,

Eggs,

Fruits,

Vegetables,

Grains & Cereals,

Food Additives

Red Meat, Poultry & Seafood

Other Interesting Foods

For some extra reading on Ketosis and low carbohydrate eating please see –